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Technology Stocks : OnSale Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Colin Cody who wrote (3067)1/1/1999 8:13:00 PM
From: zurdo  Respond to of 4903
 
<<Personally I "see" all the auction stocks>>
If you think COOL is a strong stock, your "vision" isn't very keen on any of them....I'm with robbie with regard to which direction ONSL is going...UP!!!!



To: Colin Cody who wrote (3067)1/1/1999 9:40:00 PM
From: robbie  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 4903
 
Nah, the trend is down.

Means nothing. You have heard of "oversold?" Trends do reverse. ONSL has turned on a dime many times. Colin, I predict you miss the next run-up waiting for someone to give their stock to you. No offense, JMHO.

Robbie



To: Colin Cody who wrote (3067)1/2/1999 1:11:00 AM
From: Maxwell  Read Replies (4) | Respond to of 4903
 
EGGS, COOL, ONSL, UBID, and EBAY Analysis:

I am a consumer and buy products through the internet. I have bought many items and have visited all of the companies above. Here is what I think.

First Look

____________________________________________________________________

COOL:

This company has all the computers and electronics gadget you need. The question is that "do you have the money?" Everything sold is new and at full retail price. Why should I buy at COOL if it is not any cheaper than other place? I just bought a new Eizo 20" monitor from Onsale through auction for $700. This same new monitor is sold for $1500 at COOL! The way COOL makes money is to get a lot of people to buy their products. If not they will be carrying the inventory for a long time at the cost of being depreciated rapidly.

EGGS:

Good site. I like their auction sites. I don't like their format and website. It is too busy and difficult to look at interesting items for auction. Most of the time it is not a good deal and low selection. Forget about their retail shop. Why should anyone buy at full retail price?

UBID:

Beautiful site. I visited them quite often and bought some items. Their e-mail system is slow and never up to date. I get an e-mail from them days later after the auction closed to tell me that I have been outbid. I also get e-mail from them that were supposed to send to other people who have been outbidded. Those e-mails were wrongly routed to my e-mail. I like the way they flashing display showing how many hours they have left before the auction is closed. Onsale should copy this. Their selection is not great and mainly geared toward electronics and computers and a few houshold items. They are a Onsale Mini Jr.

EBAY:

A national advertising greensheet. Great idea. Nice idea on the feedback. Lately there were news of people taking advantages of EBAY and cheating buyers. I would not want to buy a big ticket item since dealing with individuals are headaches. If I get ripped off EBAY is not going to reimburse me. Thus I see EBAY business is not scalable to a large scale. It will always be a niche market.

ONSALE:

This is my favorite website. I was first told about this website in late Nov. 98 and so far I have bought $4000 worth of stuffs. I don't spend that kind of money but since I get best brandname stuffs for 30%-50% discount I couldn't resist. I bought both new and refurbished stuffs. I don't mind refurbish because they are just as good as new with warantee. Most of these electronics and computers depreciate so fast that it is crazy to pay top dollars for the newest and latest.
Onsale website is extremely attractive and always being updated. I go there about 5 to 10 times a day to see what is new. It is very addictive. Recently I am bidding for a exercise set both bicycle and benchpress for $16. Original cost is $900 and they have 267 of them. I am sure I will win both of them for under $100.

____________________________________________________________________

Analysis

Internet auction is the way of the future. More people will buy this way when they find out how much they can save. Internet buying is expected to exceed $50 billion by 2002 and I believe it. It saves time and gas to shop in the internet. You can compare price without driving for miles. Also manufacturers will cut the middleman for consumer savings. Manufacturers will also have an outlet to get rid of their refurbished, obsolete models, and excess inventory.

But who will win? The winner will be the auction site that

1) Attract the most people
2) Have the most items
3) Have the lowest price
4) Most dependable in ordering and shipping
5) Warrantee in case of defects
6) Have the lowest cost structure

I believe ONSALE has all these criterias. They are the biggest and have the best auction system. Their sales are guaranteed at the closed of the auction date whereas other retailers must wait for buyers to click buy.

I especially like their travel section. This is lucrative business since Onsale carries no inventory. They are just the middleman for the travel agencies who are trying to fully book every cruise or trip. An open seat in a cruise is a revenue loss. Some money is better than none.

Being a leader is extremely important in this internet business. Leader brings buyers and attract advertising revenue. This is the key to long term survival and eventually success. If Onsale continues to expand its product portfolio, getting more manufacturer partners, get into the business-to-business market, ONSALE will be the one Internet Stop to buy anything you need. This will translate to a big chunk of the $50 billion in sales. A small percentage margin of the $50 billion in sales is LOTS OF MONEY.

Maxwell